Brown Sludge

The Cop and the Anthem 2006

October 13th, 2006

When I was a boy, the short stories of O. Henry numbered among my most cherished reading adventures. O. Henry was one of many authors that my Father encouraged me to enjoy, and I in turn can proudly say that I encouraged my daughter to read him the moment I though she could appreciate him. Like me, she is now a fan for life.

While I love ALL of O. Henry’s stories, there are a few that rise to the very top of the “favorites” list. Gift of the Magi, of course. The Ransom of Red Chief made me laugh so hard I couldn’t get air for a few minutes. It made my daughter Mouse fairly howl with laughter. Very near the top of the favorites list is a story titled The Cop and the Anthem. It’s about a good hearted homeless person who, worried about the coming winter, decides that his best course of action is to get himself arrested.

His plan is to commit some small and non-violent crime right in the presence of a cop, and then get hauled off to a nice warm jail where he’ll spend the winter in a heated cell with 3 square meals a day.

O. Henry’s trademark is the unexpected shift of fortunes, so you can bet that things don’t work out quite as you’d expect.

I thought of this story for the first time in a long time this morning when I read this story on AOL.

It’s about one Mr. Timothy J. Bowers of Ohio, whose “retirement plan” was to rob a bank right in the presence of a security guard, and then immediately hand himself over to the authorities ala O. Henry.

He figured jail-time would guarantee him a place to sleep and 3 squares a day until he was ready to “retire” after losing his job driving a truck for a pharmaceutical wholesaler.

There are a couple of sad ironies here, that I hope don’t escape Brown Sludge readers, but I was struck by how life sometimes imitates art, and I didn’t want the similarities between this story and the Cop and the Anthem to go unnoticed.

Don’t run to your local Brown Sludge corporate bookstore to find anything by O. Henry by the way. They often don’t bother to carry the classics because you know… “the classics don’t have very good shelf turn-over” (a direct quote to me from a Big Box Bookstore employee).

You can order it on-line from Left Bank Books, one of the nations last remaining truly INDEPENDENT books stores. (see link at end), or you can download the free e-book from The Gutenberg Project here.

The Four Million has most of his truly greats. The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Anthem, Mammon and the Archer, The Furnished Room, An Unfinished Story.

Click the book below to buy it from a true independent who actually cares about books and customers and things like that.

Hey… I wonder why the drug wholesaler he worked for went out of business? Hmmm.

Entry Filed under: General, Bookstore Sludge, Thoughts